Steven Nissen, MD, is the Chairman of the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic’s Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute. He was appointed to this position in 2006 after serving nine years as Vice Chairman of the Department of Cardiology and five years as Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Coordinating Center (C5), an organization that directs multicenter clinical trials.

Dr. Nissen’s research during the last two decades has focused on the application of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging to study the progression and regression of coronary atherosclerosis. He has served as International Principal Investigator for several large IVUS multicenter atherosclerosis trials.

Experience: Dr. Nissen has more than 35 years of experience as a physician. He is world-renowned for his work as a cardiologist, patient advocate and researcher. Equally as significant is his pioneering work in IVUS technology and its use in patients with atherosclerosis.

Publications and Speaking: Dr. Nissen has written more than 350 journal articles and 60 book chapters, including many published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. In recent years, he has also written on the subject of drug safety and was the author of manuscripts highlighting concerns about medications such as Vioxx™, Avandia™, and muraglitazar.

He has testified in both the Senate and the House of Representatives on the topic of drug safety as well as the need to reform the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As a physician/scientist, Dr. Nissen is often called on by pharmaceutical companies to consult on the development of new therapies for cardiovascular disease. He maintains a long-standing personal policy that requires these companies to donate all related honoraria directly to charity.

Dr. Nissen is currently the editor of Current Cardiology Report. In 2007, he was listed as Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People in the World – Scientists and Thinkers."

He is heavily involved with the American College of Cardiology (ACC), serving as President from March 2006 to March 2007, a member of the ACC Executive Committee from 2004 to 2008, and spending 10 years as a member of the organization’s Board of Trustees. In addition, Dr. Nissen has served several terms on the Program Committee for the ACC Annual Scientific Sessions.

Dr. Nissen served as a member of the CardioRenal Advisory Panel of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for five years, and as chair of the final year of his membership. He continues to serve as a periodic advisor to several FDA committees as a Special Government Employee.

Dr. Nissen frequently lectures at national and international meetings. He has served as visiting professor, or provided Grand Rounds, at nearly 100 institutions.

Daniel H. Solomon, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Section Clinical Sciences in the Division of Rheumatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He holds the Matthew H. Liang Distinguished Chair in Arthritis and Population Health at BWH. Solomon has advanced the care and treatment of patients throughout his career, most notably with his investigative research achievements in the epidemiology of rheumatic diseases and the comparative effectiveness of treatments in this area.

Solomon earned his BA and MD degrees at Yale University, MPH at Harvard University and completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in rheumatology at BWH. His early work focused on the safety of NSAIDs and selective COX-2 inhibitors, and he continues to study analgesics. He has also examined osteoporosis prescribing in the US and conducted several large-scale trials to improve osteoporosis care.

Solomon’s research also has focused on cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis. He is the co-Principal Investigator on an NIH funded trial testing the effect of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) on cardiovascular disease.

He has published over 300 articles and has been PI on numerous NIH, foundation, and industry supported grants. He currently is the Deputy Editor of Arthritis & Rheumatology. As well, he is the Chair of the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee.

In addition to his investigative achievements, Solomon has a busy clinical practice and has played a special role in helping the Hispanic community and been instrumental in advancing the collaborative clinical Cardiovascular in Rheumatology Medicine practice at BWH. Solomon has mentored over 30 trainees and junior faculty and was recently awarded The Baughman Faculty Mentoring Award at BWH.

Dr. Peter Libby is a cardiovascular medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Libby received his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now BWH). He also completed a research fellowship in cellular physiology at HMS. Dr. Libby is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. The author of over 370 peer-reviewed publications, and an Editor of the leading textbook in cardiology, Dr. Libby's clinical and research interests include vascular biology, atherosclerosis and preventative cardiology. The research laboratory that Dr. Libby directs studies the messengers created by the body that may produce arterial plaque and blockages, as well as normal and abnormal function of smooth muscle and endothelial cells. Boston Magazine named Dr. Libby a top cardiologist. His research has received funding from the American Heart Association and National Institutes of Health. Dr. Libby has received research recognitions on four continents including the highest basic research awards from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology, and the Anitchkow award from the European Atherosclerosis Society.

As a clinician scientist, I have pursued an interdisciplinary collaborative approach focusing on the epidemiology and health outcomes of musculoskeletal and rheumatic diseases, specifically psoriatic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. I have a multi disciplinary approach with translational collaborators from orthopedic surgery, dermatology, cardiology, molecular medicine and our genomics institute. This translational and trans-disciplinary approach leverages our clinical biorepository in the Department of Rheumatology with the basic science and translational research capabilities provided within the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute which includes; the Preventive Cardiology Core Lab, Molecular Diagnostics Lab, and the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

My research program focuses on 3 unique and synergystic areas which are: 1) Clinical therapeutics/ Clinical trials with a current focus on osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis clinical trials. More specifically, our translational work investigates the role of TNF receptor 2 and its downstream signaling intermediates in the pathogenesis of immune mediated diseases leading to potentially safer and effective treatment with TNF receptor 2 specific blockade. We also examine KLK6 mice for psoriatic arthritis phenotypes and 2) Rheumatic diseases comorbidities unraveling the complex mechanisms linking atherosclerosis and rheumatic diseases by identification of clinically applicable biomarkers of subclinical atherosclerosis. The clinical goal of this research is to improve upon stratification strategies for reducing cardiovascular risk in these patients. 3) Development of innovative patient reported outcomes and screening tools for investigating the epidemiology, natural history and health outcomes in large psoriatic disease clinical cohorts. In support of these research endeavors, I have also been active in establishing disease specific rheumatologic biorepositories, and currently direct the Cleveland Clinic Rheumatology biorepository.

I am currently Vice Chair of Rheumatology, Director of Clinical Outcomes Research and Director of the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Center in the Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic. I am also Assistant Professor of Medicine at the CC Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. I have been an active member on several multi-center and investigator initiated clinical trials in osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients including the PRECISION trial (over 24,000 patients enrolled).